


Knowhere

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Humor, I Don't Even Know, Light Angst, M/M, Peter Quill Feels, Peter Quill Needs a Hug, Random & Short, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tumblr Prompt, hitch hicking, random headcanons about, the guardians of the galaxy as humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-10-30 17:19:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10881402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: "You’re the best thing that has ever happened to be, man. We’re gunna beroommates,” Peter decides. Thankfully Tony agrees.Based offthisprompt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's a little bit of references to GoTG2 but nothing that should spoil anything. 
> 
> Warnings for some mentions of child abuse.

Peter was well known for his flightiness and his inability to hold down any kind of commitment aside from a strange loyalty to his adoptive father Yondu. His mother had died and he had run off before anyone could snatch him and he got lost fast. He had been cold, scared, confused and in enough emotional pain that it didn’t occur to him that some dude ready to pick him up of the side of the road was probably a freaking child molester. Yondu wasn’t into the kiddies thankfully, but a good portion of his crew _did_ threaten to eat him regularly. Peter was pretty sure Yondu picked him up because a kid his size could squeeze into small spaces that adults couldn’t, so it was good for all that stealing Yondu did.

But he got over that life, now the police were on his ass, and he never liked his life with Yondu anyways so he figured he’d just up and move. He was headed to New York, he thinks, with his U-Haul and all his stolen shit singing along to his favorite music when he sees a guy on the side of the road. He thinks about it for a few moments before deciding fuck it; the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He’d pick the dude up; see where he wanted to go. He pulls over and opens the door, “where to, stranger?” he calls out.

The guy glaring back at him looks vaguely familiar but he doesn’t think too much of it. Peter was terrible with faces and even if he knew this guy, which was highly unlikely, he didn’t much care. All he was doing here was picking up a bit of company for the ride so he had a sing-along buddy for the road.

“Just get me the hell away from here,” the guy says, which was definitely weird as hell but Peter had no room to judge there.

“Alright, hop in. I don’t even know where I’m going, I’m just driving,” he tells his companion as he climbs in.

“So no one knows where you’re going? Excellent, that makes my life easier,” the guy says as Peter pulls back onto the road. It isn’t until he’s ten minutes down the road that he realizes the implications of the guy’s words and by then it’s too late and he’s probably going to get murdered. Shit.

*

Tony fucking hated Howard’s guts and he was _done_. He was tired of Howard’s drinking, his tirades, his abuse, and no matter how much his mother insisted that Howard really did love him Tony didn’t believe it for a second. It was hard to believe someone who cursed you out in increasingly creative ways, swearing up and down that he regretted your existence had any sort of love for you. Howard might love to hate Tony, but he didn’t love Tony.

He’d regret leaving his mother behind but he just couldn’t deal with it anymore. So he got a bunch of his stuff together and over the course of a few months he sold a bunch of it, amassing a good amount of money before he swiped all of Howard’s precious fucking Rolexes so he could pawn those if he needed to as well. There was some other jewelry and stuff that he swiped before he left too, things he knew were worth a lot of money but those things were all contingencies because they were potentially traceable. He was certain that his mom would stop Howard from calling the cops but if he did Tony didn’t want to leave a trail, hence why he sold a bunch of his own shit to get cash.

There was still the problem of a ride though, and he didn’t want to risk _any_ trace on him at all. Bus stations and train stations all had cameras and he had no interest in being found so those were out. Eventually he had decided to just start _walking_ and hope that someone would pick him up. It took a long while but some dude in a U-Haul shows up and pulls over, asking him where he was headed. Tony didn’t have an answer to that question because all he wanted was the hell away from Howard, which was what he told the guy in so many words.

U-Haul guy informs him that he’s just sort of _driving_ and Tony relaxes some, telling him that that makes his life easier. It isn’t until he’s been sitting in the vehicle for an hour or so that he realizes the implications of his words and he kicks himself.

*

Peter has never been fond of awkward silences so eventually he gets tired of his passenger’s brooding and turns to him. “So. What’s your name?” he asks, “mine’s Peter.” Might as well show him that he’s a person with a name and stuff so he won’t get murdered on this trip.

His companion squints at him a little but he eventually sighs, “Tony,” he says.

“Neat, so what inspired you to travel?” he asks in an attempt to draw the guy out of his pretty hard looking shell.

“I fucking hate my life, you?” he asks. He isn’t even _looking_ at Peter, which, _rude_.

“Same actually. I got bored and figured what the hell have I got to lose? I don’t have family, I hated the people I lived with, and it isn’t like I’ve got a relationship or a pet or something to keep me in one place so I just packed my shit and started driving.” Of course as soon as he finishes saying all of that he realizes that he’s prime fucking victim material. He’s seen Criminal Minds; serial killers always go for the ones with no ties, no destination, or no connections to the destination they were in. People no one would know were missing and he fit that bill for some time now. He went missing when he was _ten_ ; to say he was an easy target was an understatement.

Tony seems to relax a little at that and Peter curses himself because clearly the serial killer thought he was an easy target too. God damnit. “I was pretty much in the same situation, except I put more planning into leaving. I _do_ have family and they have resources and I’d rather not be found,” he says.

Peter remains silent for a long few moments, not sure what to say because he wasn’t totally sure what that _meant_ , and by the time he thinks he has a response it’s been too long so he turns the music back up and drives.

*

The last thing Tony wanted Peter to think was that he was a serial killer so when he wakes up before Peter does he goes in search of food. He finds a decent looking diner and orders some breakfast to go and hopes to hell Peter has no allergies and that he wasn’t a vegan or something. Mostly he wanted to convince the guy he was friendly and that he wasn’t about to murder him any time soon.

By the time he gets back to the U-Haul Peter is frantically looking around, presumably for Tony. “I didn’t go anywhere,” Tony tells him as he opens the door, “well, nowhere far.” He hands Peter the Styrofoam container with his food and Peter grins wide.

“Thanks man!” he says, snatching the plastic fork Tony hands to him and he all but attacks the food. Tony eats his own in silence and tries to keep from laughing at Peter’s moaning and comments about the food. Compared to the food of his upbringing this isn’t that great but no one made breakfast like Jarvis and Tony has accepted that.

“So where are we off to now?” Tony asks as Peter takes off, still licking his lips. If Tony didn’t know any better he’d say Peter was used to being hungry. Actually he didn’t know any better and he sort of hoped he was wrong. Of all the abuses he’s suffered hurting for food was never one of them unless Howard was feeling particularly cruel and even then his mom always managed to slip him something.

“No clue, how do you feel about all left turns?” Peter asks.

“Just make sure we’re not in town when we do it otherwise we’re going to be circling a city block all day and freaking out the locals,” he says.

Peter throws his head back and laughs, “maybe we _should_ do that, that’s hilarious!” he says.

“At least until the cops get called but yeah, that’s be funny,” Tony says. A mention of the cops has Peter spooked though so they don’t end up following through, which makes Tony curious.

*

After breakfast Tony thaws out some and they end up arguing about which era was better for music, seventies or eighties. Neither one of them wins their debate but they both agree that modern pop music was fucking _terrible_. They both made exceptions for Beyoncé though and that was all that mattered.

“Okay, dumbest thing you’ve ever done- go,” Peter says, grinning at Tony.

Tony groans and smacks his palm to his face, “probably this or that one time I decided to hack the Pentagon for fun and got put on house arrest for being a threat to national security for three months,” he says.

Peter damn near hits the breaks because _what_. “Okay buddy, proof or it didn’t happen,” he says because that was just too ridiculous.

He gets a _look_ from Tony but he pulls out his phone- a StarkPhone and those things weren’t cheap. Peter can’t help but think of the decent money he could make off of it if he hocked it but he leaves that alone. He was trying to make _friends_ now. Tony dials a number and puts the call on speaker as it rings. “Agent Phil Coulson, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” the person on the other end says.

“Hey Agent, remember that time I hacked the Pentagon for funsies?” Tony asks, snickering.

“How did you get my phone number?” the guy on the other end snaps.

“I hacked SHIELD just so I could get your number and harass you,” Tony tells him.

“God damn it, St-” the agent starts but Tony hangs up on him.

“Proof enough?” he asks, eyebrows raised.

“How do I know what wasn’t some random dude on the other end who’s in on the joke?” Peter asks, squinting suspiciously.

Tony gives him a _look_ , “you ever heard of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division?” he asks. Peter shakes his head, that shit was a damn mouthful, he’d remember it if he ever heard of it. “That’s because it’s a super secret government agency that no one knows about and Agent hates me. You can always call back,” Tony says.

Peter ends up calling back from a payphone just to make sure Tony wasn’t totally bullshitting him and he _totally_ gets Agent again. “City crematorium here, you kill ‘em we grill ‘em, we got an agent here with a funky ass badge and we’ve been directed to you,” Peter says. Behind him Tony doubles over with his hands over his mouth doing his mouth so Agent here couldn’t hear him laughing.

“You _what_? What agent?” Agent asks in an urgent tone. Peter would feel bad if he wasn’t such a jackass.

“Nah, just fucking with you, I just wanted to make sure there _were_ agents to worry about here. I’m telling _everybody_ about SHIELD now,” he says and cackles, hanging up as Agent starts yelling.

“Oh my _god_ , that was hilarious!” Tony wheezes out.

“Dude, you pointed me towards a super secret government agency. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to be, man. We’re gunna be _roommates_ ,” Peter decides. Thankfully Tony agrees.

*

They end up settling into some small ass town that they both hated but they wanted an adventure and neither one of them had ever lived in a small town before so this was it. Of course they didn’t anticipate the weird amount of drama the area had to offer and neither one of them were willing to give up front row seats to a live reality show so they stuck around to watch everyone’s shit.

Gamora, a woman Peter met while buying chips, had one hell of a terrible relationship with her bald but weirdly hot sister Nebula. There was a tall mute dude from Nigeria who hung out with a small guy that looked kind of like a raccoon given the skin markings, not that people made many comments on the vitiligo for obvious reasons. Tony also discovered a redhead that could very well be a spy, a gay reverend that he disliked because Steve Rogers was an _ass_ but his husband Bucky was a delight, and he totally found a guy who was into science. Bruce had also been excited to find a science buddy in the middle of pissfuck Knowhere, literally, that was the town’s name.

Peter found an ex mass murderer named Drax and made a joke to Tony about being worried that he’d picked up a Drax in the beginning instead of Tony. Drax, thankfully, was reformed and mostly just invested in his daughter Heather, who definitely did not hit the name jackpot in the town’s mess of children naming. The fact that her name was normal actually made her _abnormal_.

Regardless, they hated living in a bumpkin town but the drama was just too good to pass up.

*

Tony sits beside Peter, passing him a beer as he drops an arm around Tony’s shoulders. “So how long have you two been together?” Steve asks them; looking _almost_ like he didn’t have a stick up his ass. Bucky had probably told him to get his shit together, Tony thinks, because he and Tony got along considerable well.

Gamora also leans forward in interest and Tony frowns, “we aren’t together,” he says.

“I mean we’re roommates,” Peter adds.

“Uh huh, ‘roommates’,” Rocket says, making air quotations with his fingers. Groot, his buddy, gives him a look and Rocket rolls his eyes. What the hell just happened no one knew because only Rocket understood Groot’s expressions.

“Why were there air quotations around that?” Peter asks.

“We aren’t bigots,” Nebula snaps. She glares at everyone when they all look at her and Tony _thinks_ she was trying to be gentle. It was hard to tell with her.

“What she means to say is that we aren’t the stereotypical small town,” Gamora says in a far more gentle tone.

“Yeah I got that, we’re throwing a fucking luncheon and we invited a gay reverend and a mass murderer to it,” Peter says, gesturing to Steve and Drax.

“I only killed fourteen people,” Drax says and everyone frowns.

“Yeah, that’s not _better_ , Drax,” Rocket tells him. Groot looks alarmed.

Steve and Bucky exchange a look and sigh, “look, we’re accepting here, there’s no need to hide your relationship,” Steve says. He’s got some weird look on his face, like he was genuinely trying to convince them that they would be welcome if they were dating but they got that already.

“Dude, again we invited a _reverend_ and a _mass murderer_ to a luncheon. We get that you’re weirdly accepting,” Tony says.

“Oh but don’t worry,” Rocket says dramatically, “it was _only_ fourteen people!”

Drax glares down at Rocket, “do not make it fifteen,” he says, looking dead serious.

Rocket squints at him, “the fuck, dude?”

“Okay, lets leave them be. I want to know where that dip Peter makes is because I have been craving it for weeks,” Bruce says. Everyone else chimes in their agreement and Peter snickers to Tony.

“If they knew what was in that none of them would eat it,” he mumbles and Tony laughs because it’s true. Peter goes off to get the dip though and the subject changes to children because Steve and Bucky wanted one, Drax was always happy to brag about his kid, and Bruce looked kind of pained with the whole subject.

When Peter returns with the dip everyone decides to flip the subject back to Peter and Tony, asking if they wanted kids as they all attack Peter’s dip.

Tony snorts, “I don’t want children, I _am_ a children,” he says.

Peter lifts a hand, “seconded,” he adds.

They both share a look though because they both knew that wasn’t entirely true. Sure, both of them wanted families, it was just that neither one of them wanted to be like their respective fathers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished this baby off!
> 
> Warnings for death and allusions to abuse.

They’ve been in their annoying backwater shithole of a town for three months when Tony gets news. Well, kind of. Howard managed to track some of his activity digitally and sent him an email that essentially threatened to kill him if he came home and then he signed off by telling him that he best be back at the mansion within the week. Tony wasn’t entirely sure Howard knew how absolutely non-motivating that was. He manages to recover his tracks and goes back to contemplating his maybe relationship with Peter.

The entire town was especially convinced they were together and Tony supposed they were right at least in a geographical sense. They were maybe sort of together in the dating sense but neither of them were willing to talk about it because neither one of them liked talking about their feelings much. It didn’t help that they were both hiding a lot of stuff from each other and from the town they were living in. Neither one of them seemed fond on telling the other what was going on either and they were both fine with that but it made them skittish.

It didn’t stop Steve and Bucky from making regular comments, and it definitely didn’t stop Rocket from acting like they were lovers, and god Drax and his bad sex jokes could stop any day now. Gamora seemed content to leave them be but Nebula rolled her eyes at them often and kept reminding them that they weren’t in a small town of bigots. Tony thinks she’s trying to be helpful but Nebula didn’t know how to sound anything but angry so she was more successful in freaking them out than having them accept their rumored relationship.

In the end though it was Yondu who screwed everything up.

*

Yondu knew he didn’t do anything good for his boy but he wanted to make it up to him a little and he happened to know the coppers figured out where he was. So he manages to get a little information out of the small squeaky little fucker of a cop and he makes his way to Knowhere because he had a hell of a lot to make up for and maybe, just maybe, he could make things up to Peter just a little with his plan. He’d never make up for what he’s done to the boy completely but he wanted to at least try before… well before.

So he tracks him down to that tiny ass backwater hick town he was in and finds his place. Yondu was surprised at Peter's choice- he never liked small towns. He's more surprised when _Tony Stark_ answers the door, “uh… there a Peter Quill here?” he asks somewhat awkwardly.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “who are you?”

Yondu frowns, “honestly I can’t see a single reason why Tony Star-”

“Look just come in and explain inside,” Tony tells him, cutting him off and stepping aside. That was strange as all hell but he was inside so he wasn’t going to complain too much. He could see a few other people inside the small house looking at him curiously but he mostly ignores them.

“Well, where’s Peter?” he asks, working to keep the gruffness out of his voice. Why the hell Peter was hanging out with Tony Stark he had no idea but he didn’t find any harm in it. He was rich so at least Peter was being taken care of or he hoped for that anyways.

“Work just… keep my last name to yourself,” Tony says, mumbling that last bit. Yondu frowns but he nods in agreement.

“Alright. When does he get off work?” he asks.

Tony looks at his phone- a custom model Yondu notices- and tells him he was going to be home in a few hours. He elects to settle in to wait.

*

Tony knew about Yondu sure, Peter made a few allusions to him though he’s only mentioned him by name once. What he was doing here he had no idea, and he also had no idea how he found Peter given that Tony was doing a good job of covering his digital tracks too but maybe Yondu had some other connections that led him back here, who knew.

Regardless Youdu made himself at home and it didn’t take long for him to get everyone laughing with his ridiculous stories. It was hard to imagine him as someone Peter could dislike but Tony knew better than most that charm could be deceiving- Howard was plenty charming too so he stayed on high alert. Bruce, Natasha, and Gamora all seemed enthused with him though and they were all pretty good judges of character so he figured that maybe Peter just had bad luck with him or something. It was possible.

By the time Peter comes home Tony has joined in on the laughing, something that proves to be a mistake if the betrayed look on Peter’s face says anything. It wasn’t like he _meant_ to though, he just found Yondu funny and so did everyone else.

“Hey Peter,” Yondu says, going quiet as soon as Peter enters the room. The others sense the difference immediately and they quickly make excuses before all but fleeing the scene. Tony is jealous because he wanted to flee with them but he lived here.

“Yondu,” Peter says in a short tone, throwing his keys in the bowl by the door. Tony couldn’t believe they had a bowl by the door. He never imagined himself being so domestic with anyone.

Yondu looks uncomfortable but he shifts a little and sighs, “look, I came to try and talk things out with ya,” he says, looking genuine.

“Not interested,” Peter says bluntly and Tony stands to leave the room but Peter gives him a look that prompts him to sit back down. Well he guessed he was going to be stuck dealing with this family drama then…

Thankfully, or at least Tony _thought_ thankfully at the time, they’re interrupted by a knock on the door. Peter answers it, welcoming the distraction before the _police_ burst through the door yelling about Peter being under arrest.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Yondu says, walking over fast, “it wasn’t him, it was me.” _What_ was him, Tony wanted to know, but he finds out somewhat quickly after when Yondu gives some impressive details from some robbery. Peter stands by looking as confused as Tony felt.

“And you were going to pin it on him?” one of the cops asks, pointing at Peter. “And what? Had a change of heart?” the cops asks, obviously not believing Yondu’s story.

“No, I was _going_ to pin it on my idiot brother but the slimy little bastard framed _Peter_ for it,” he says. “If you looked up my record it wouldn’t sound so unbelievable.” Tony raises an eyebrow at Peter but Peter only shrugs and mouths ‘I don’t know’ at him, which was entirely unhelpful.

Yondu and the police argue back and forth and Peter thankfully can’t seem to remember any of the details to the crime he supposedly committed but Yondu seemed to remember enough that the cops think it’s worth it to drag him off.

“Well,” Tony says, “today was eventful. Mind explaining what the _hell_ just happened here?”

*

Peter didn’t want to tell Tony anything but he didn’t have a choice once Yondu showed up and then the fucking _cops_ found him. Then, to Peter’s total surprise, _Yondu_ takes the blame for all of it. He even remembered more details about the robbery than Peter did honestly. He’s robbed a lot of people, stole a lot of things, he hardly kept it all straight but when Yondu starts listing off the missing items Peter remembers it all, including the rat he had used as a microphone when he walked through the person’s house stealing their shit. At the time it was funny but now he had to wonder what kind of sick fuck used a rat as a microphone.

Nah, that was still funny as fuck and he rehomed the rat so it wasn’t like it got hurt or anything.

Tony takes in all the information and Peter expects him to leave, yell, rage, _something_ but he doesn’t do any of that. Instead he surprises Peter more than Yondu did by telling his own sordid tragic backstory. He at least realizes why Tony looked so damn familiar after being annoyed by the familiarity for months now. He’s _Tony Stark_ and in hindsight that seemed _so_ obvious with how good he as at tech and he also learns that his phone was a custom model but he hadn’t been familiar enough with StarkTech to know that. Damn. That would have cost even more money if he hocked it like he debated on doing when he first met Tony.

“Wow, I mean I knew we had shitty fathers but now this is just weird. My shitty father took the blame for a crime I committed and yours… is still a douchenozzle,” Peter says.

“So… to get this straight Yondu picked you up off the side of the road?” Tony asks, looking over at him.

Peter nods, “yup. Said being my size made it easier for me to get into small spaces adults couldn’t. Good for thievin’,” Peter says, quoting Yondu.

“And you were definitely the one who robbed that rando and Yondu took the blame for it,” Tony says and Peter nods even though it wasn’t exactly a question. “Well alright,” Tony says, “this is not what I expected when I invited friends over this afternoon.”

*

They get a letter from Yondu a week later but Peter refuses to open it and Tony knew better to push him so they go on like normal until Tony opens the door to go to work one day and finds his mom standing with her hand poised like she was about to knock. “Tony!” she says, looking relieved, “oh thank god I thought you were dead!”

Tony rolls his eyes, “cut the shit mom, no you didn’t. Dad found me three weeks ago and he would have told you,” he says. He doesn’t really want to fight with her but he damn well knew she was going to try and talk him into going back and he wasn’t doing that.

“And you were missing for _months_ before that and no one had seen you! You’re hardly conspicuous,” she points out.

Yeah, alright so maybe he wasn’t. Apparently everyone here lived under a rock or something because they didn’t seem to know who he was and he wasn’t going to question it when it worked for him. “How did you find me?” he asks eventually.

“Rhodey,” Maria says, “Howard thought to track his emails and he eventually found a thread both of you obviously worked to bury and from there he found out the name of the town and I figured out your alias,” she says.

Shouldn’t have been hard for her, he was using her maiden name instead of her married name. She would have known as soon as she seen it. “I’m going to kick Rhodey’s ass when I see him next,” Tony mumbles, totally planning Rhodey’s ass kicking.

“It was your mistake Howard found so you should go easy on him,” Maria says and Tony glares at her. He didn’t make a _mistake_ , Howard was just familiar with how he coded things and not with how Rhodey coded things. Otherwise he never would have found all those emails they made damn sure couldn’t be accessed by anyone.

“Well I’m not going back,” Tony tells her bluntly.

“Who’s at the door?” Peter calls as he walks out of the kitchen, freezing in the living room when he sees Maria. “Oh uh… hi Mrs. Stark?” he asks more than states.

“Who is this?” Maria asks, pushing past Tony into the small house and he groans, knowing he was going to get stuck with his mom all day. That wouldn’t be terrible if he didn’t know he’d end up arguing with her about going back to the mansion.

“Peter. He’s uh…” tony pauses, not sure how to explain his presence in his life.

“His boyfriend,” Peter finishes. “We ran off to get eloped because that sounded like fun.” Tony snorts because it wasn’t far off from the truth.

“You better not actually be married because you _will_ invite me to your wedding,” Maria tells him, giving him the stink eye.

“Jesus mom I’m not married. I’m not even marriage material and I’m still not going home so you can just go tell Howard that,” he says, wanting to cut straight to the point.

“Good,” Maria says, “because I’m not going back either. You had the right idea running off the way you did. Howard only knows where you are, I didn’t tell him anything about your name change and he’s too much of a self absorbed asshole to remember my maiden name. Peggy says she almost has enough evidence to bury him under his own stupidity for life no matter how good and expensive his lawyers are,” she says and _okay_ , that wasn’t what he expected.

“Um, do you want me to pick up an air mattress on my way home?” Peter asks.

*

Peggy, as it turned out, was able to follow through on her promises to Maria on making sure Howard wouldn’t be able to touch her or Tony and that meant he could go home at least. He still didn’t much want to but he had to admit working a menial job was slowly killing him, inventing has always been his calling, and it would be nice to be able to take care of Peter.

They’re back in the mansion when Peter finally opens Yondu’s letter because that had been their deal. Tony goes back and he reads the letter that way they both suffered with their shitty pasts. Tony suspects Peter just wanted to see a mansion in real life so he agrees for his sake. And, of course, because he really missed his AI JARVIS. He had been enthused to find out that JARVIS refused to let Howard into his part of the lab downstairs and he also refused to give Howard any kind of access to Tony’s things, even when Howard tried to make a root account to try and hack past JARVIS. According to the AI he was very annoyed with Howard’s efforts.

Tony leaves Peter to read as he unpacks their meager belongings because he probably needed the privacy and he also wanted to get their things away as soon as possible. He hears Peter start sniffing but he leaves him be and focuses on figuring out whose underwear was whose. Ew. He resolves to buy them both all new roose by the time Peter is finished with the letter.

“I should have read this sooner,” Peter whispers and Tony turns his attention to him.

“What is it?” he asks, walking over and sitting beside him.

It takes a long moment for Peter to be able to speak but he had no problem waiting. “He… has cancer and he found me to apologize before… well before.” Tony swears under his breath because that had been how his mom went too and that couldn’t be easy for him to hear. “He uh… also said some stuff about by dad, my bio dad. Mostly that he was a real jackass and that if he pops up in my life I should avoid him. Said he was a bad man and trust me, Yondu doesn’t use that kind of description lightly. Shit, I don’t even know if he’s still alive,” Peter says, dropping his head into his hands. Tony can tell he’s crying again but he leaves him to it.

“JARVIS, pull everything up on Yondu,” he tells the AI, giving him a last name when he realizes he forgot it. The AI takes only a few minutes to get an update on him and it turned out that he was still alive, barely, in some hospital so Tony arranges a visit. Peter offers him money but Tony waves it off. He had his wealth back now; he hardly needed Peter’s pennies.

*

Peter visits Yondu alone and Tony gets stuck giving statements for the police, which was tedious and annoying but it turned out he was a witness to a lot of Howard’s crimes, and Obadiah’s too. As it turned out Peggy had had the foresight to know Obi would probably try and fuck him and his mother out of what was rightfully theirs so she found a bunch of dirt on him too, which, _awesome_. Tony always knew his secret childhood hero being Peggy instead of his father was a good plan. She was a true badass.

When Peter comes back both he and Tony are exhausted but Peter looks worse off than Tony does. “Did it go well?” he asks somewhat hesitantly.

“Well it did at first. He apologized for being a jackass my whole life, reiterated that bit about my asshat father, and then _died_ ,” Peter says, getting to the end of that a bit suddenly. “Am I destined to watch everyone I love die in a hospital because I’d really rather not,” he snaps, apparently into the anger stage of grief.

“If it makes you feel better I’ll probably die doing something as stupid as it is cool,” he says, drawing a half a snort out of Peter. “Plus you’re technically rich now so you can plan Yondu a super cool funeral.”

Peter looks surprised and then somewhat hopeful, “you’d really do that for me?” he asks.

Tony shrugs, “of course. I have the money, might as well put it to good use. Especially if it’ll help you through this a little easier,” he says genuinely.

Peter nods and smiles, looking like he had a mischievous idea. “Yondu always wanted to go out with a bang. I’ve got an idea,” he says.

*

In all honesty Tony didn’t know who was more dramatic- Peter or Yondu but he had to admit turning Yondu’s ashes into fireworks was a pretty sweet funeral idea.

“Are we watching a dead man explode?” Drax asks, having travelled for the funeral to support Peter.

“Yup,” Tony says, watching the fireworks go off.

“That is equal parts awesome and disgusting,” he says bluntly and Tony can’t help but agree.

“Take notes, Groot, this is how I want my funeral,” Rocket tells him. Groot looks somewhat horrified but Rocket only rolls his eyes and tells him to take notes.

“When I die,” Drax says, “I want someone to cremate me and throw my ashes into the eyes of my enemies so I can make them feel pain one last time.” He looks up at the fireworks like this statement is nothing and Tony attempts to hold in his laughing but Rocket bursting out in cackled encourages him to start too. Peter was going to kick his ass but he was sure he’d understand when he heard about Drax’s ridiculous funeral plans.

In his defense that was probably the coolest death plan ever, which meant Tony now had to find an idea that out did it but he’s Tony fucking Stark, he’d figure it out. He could figure just about anything out and with Peter’s help he’d be just fine.


End file.
